Text made of objects

[David D]

Possibly in the wrong forumn, not sure. Moderators are welcome to move thread if needed.

I am looking for a way to use objects created from lines and arcs as text because of a machine that will not read text. The objects look like letters and numbers. I am wondering if there is a way to create a text style, library or whatever with the created "text". There can be hundreds of characters on a single drawing so importing and aligning and placing each object 1 at a time is very slow and painstaking.

[David D]

Found a workaround on this forum page:

http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/create-text/3d-text

The first reply shows "txtexp" which does just what I need. Only problem is that for what I am doing I can only use .shx fonts. I would like a slightly less plain type of font but can get by with what is available.

[ReMark]

There are many, many different styles of SHX fonts. Forum member Stykface has a link to over 700 right here at CADTutor. Maybe you can find one that suits your needs. What exactly are you looking for?

[David D]

We are trying to use a router to engrave on plastic. The router program does not read text so we are trying to take the text that would normaly be printed or laser etched and convert it into actual objects made of lines and curves. I thought the txtexp would work but it actually takes curves and breaks them into multiple straight lines of varying lenghth depending on the font. I was just informed that that is not acceptable. I need curved parts of letters to actually be made of a curve.
The company with the router has made a library of letters and numbers made of lines and curves but we need an easy way to replace the actual text with this new library. Right now we know of no way to do that except letter by letter. Considering there are usually at least around 150 and could be a thousand or thousands, very time consuming. So the font used is no big deal, just need a way to convert.

[rkent]

You will want to try this one out, it will use splines instead of lines.

http://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/AC...autostart=true

[David D]

Got it but cannot make it work. Anything special about loading it that I might need to know?

[rkent]

When you downloaded it, it should have loaded for you. Then in ACAD you type T2G to start it. You will have to have admin rights (I believe) for it to install.

[David D]

It says it loaded when I run the app but "t2g" gets "unknown comand" in AC. Must be because because the AuotoCad is not registered. Boss was trying to save $ and found cheap computer with it loaded.

[rkent]

I believe it needs .net 3.5 or higher, you may be on 3.0 or less.

[ReMark]

AutoCAD is not registered? The computer was used and had AutoCAD already preloaded on it and fully activated? By activated I mean the former owner received an authorization code for the program. Any chance you guys are using an illegal copy of AutoCAD?